Put the life back into your soil

At Camperdown Compost we value soil health. For more than 15 years, Camperdown Compost has remained the leading supplier of on-farm composting solutions to farms in Victoria’s Western District. With more than 10 years of data collected from dairy farms across the south west, we now have concrete evidence that proves long-term annual compost application results in healthier, more productive soils.

Fertiliser programs

Compost fertiliser programs

We can demonstrate that the nutrients in a compost program can equal or better a conventional fertiliser program in both cost and nutrient supplied.

We’ve always known that incorporating compost into a fertiliser program was a cost effective way to deliver the right nutrients for your soil’s requirements and now we can demonstrate this with our compost calculator.

The budgeting tool lets us:

stay within or below the budget set by you

choose amendments that improve the fertility of your soil

demonstrate how tailored compost compares to conventional programs

manage any deficiencies

lift biological activity

add carbon

How it works

Firstly we enter what the farmer did last year and compare that with their soil test. We then enter the comparative market costs of traditional fertiliser and how many kilos of NPK were previously applied. We input the same detail for a compost application and use our calculator to match or better the nutrients being applied. The result is a tailored compost program that will benefit your soil and increase your log term productivity, and cost you the same or less than a conventional program.

Call us to for a consultation on your annual fertiliser program. We can use your existing soil test, or get one done for you, and create a compost blend with the nutrients your soil requires.

Incorporating compost into your annual fertiliser program is a cost effective way of improving soil health and preventing nutrient leaching and run off.

For example, 2.5 tonne of compost at $100 applied per hectare is the same amount of N, P, K as applying 130kg of single super, 50kg of Muriate of Potash and 80 kg of urea at $124. Plus there is more than 500kg of carbon and more calcium.

One tonne of compost has more than $55 worth of N, P, K, S, Calcium and carbon. In addition, there are the many trace minerals biological species, enzymes, vitamins and carbohydrates.

Let’s see how it compares with a conventional fertiliser quote:

All of these nutrients are very plant available, stable and not leachable.

Tying up the nutrients with the organic matter or carbon means the nutrients are still able to be digested by the biology and released as plant-available food.

Most water soluble fertilisers are readily used by a plant when applied, but if not used within a short period of time will either leach or run off (water soluble), or tie up with another element. This tie-up is undesirable as plants and bugs find it difficult to break the bond.

Ultimately, we want the nutrients to tie up with organic matter to stay in a form that the biology can easily access, which is why ideally, traditional fertiliser is spread with compost.